How Harry Styles ran one hour faster than average at the 2025 Tokyo Marathon
Pop icon and three-time Grammy winner Harry Styles last performed on his Love on Tour concert stage in Reggio, Emilia, Italy in July 2023. His fans have been missing him and begging for a new album.
While pap photos of Harry walking the streets of London, Italy, Berlin, and Japan have fed fans a look at his mundane life (which he must have missed, thus the self-imposed hiatus on this solo career), everyone was pleasantly surprised to see him run at the recent Tokyo Marathon and clock in an impressive time of three hours, 24 minutes, and seven seconds!
The average marathon time for men is four hours, 14 minutes. So, he ran 50 minutes faster than the average male marathon runner. He was reported to maintain a consistent pace of 7:47 per mile. His fastest recorded 5k split was 23:16 between the 30k and 35k. This indicates a strong endurance and pacing strategy.
Can you have such a remarkable performance without serious training and prior long-distance running experience? To compare, our very own Kim Atienza, a very fit and serious triathlete, finished the New York Marathon in three hours and 57 minutes in 2015, and the Boston Marathon in three hours, 57 minutes, and 55 seconds in 2017.
Styles was fit to run
Styles, even during his One Direction days, was frequently filmed running on a treadmill, boxing, or working out. He did the same when he was preparing to film Dunkirk. According to his long-time fitness trainer Thibo David, a former special forces soldier and founder of the Executive Peak Performance system, the one-mile personal best of Styles in training was five minutes and 13 seconds. Thibo trained Harry for four years, from 2018 to 2021, before his worldwide tour.
Thibo, who has a comprehensive list of professional athletes as clients, said in the same interview that Swiss professional footballer Granit Xhaka is only 15 seconds faster.
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During the COVID lockdown, they went on runs around London at 60 to 70% of maximum heart rate. Harry runs and swims a lot, then he goes to the gym for two hours of strength training, high-intensity circuits, core work, and a faster running regimen.
Thibo shared a sample of Harry’s workout. Warm-up is a slow 20- to 30-minute jog, followed by 100 press-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 squats in eight minutes. He finishes the warm-up running one mile on the treadmill as fast as possible.
For strength training, they use bands to activate the hips and lower back (glute bridges, clamshells, and banded knee raises). Then they shift to kettlebell clean and press and single- leg squats. The conditioning phase includes four rounds of alternating arm kettlebell clean, burpees, sandbag over the shoulder, maximum height tuck jump, maximum effort SkiErg, fast run on the treadmill, and a one-minute rest in between.
Last phase of the workout focuses on the core with 10 minutes of leg raise, plank, side plank, hanging leg raise, and ab roller, then finished off with a cool-down of slow run into walk and stretching.
Thibo was quick to say that the key is that Styles enjoys working out and is passionate about it.
Is Styles running all six world marathon majors?
His successful debut at the Tokyo Marathon might just be the inspiration he needed to run the five other world marathons (Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York, and a new 2025 addition Sydney).
The Tokyo Marathon is held on the first Sunday of March. In 2024, a total of 37,000 people ran. This year, the number grew slightly to 37,785 runners. It joined the World Marathon Majors in 2012 as a result of merging two marathons since 1981. These were the Tokyo International Marathon and the New York Friendship International Marathon.
The month after, specifically the third Monday of April on Patriot’s Day, the Boston Marathon is held. Established in 1897, it is considered the oldest annual marathon in the world. Its inspiration was the marathon race at the Athens Olympic Games in 1896. The number of runners was limited to 30,000 in both 2023 and 2024.
Another major marathon held in April is the London Marathon. Over 48,000 participated in 2023 and 53,700 completed it in 2024. They expect participation to even be much higher this year. The 2024 London Marathon raised 67 million pounds or US$86.4 million, making it the largest one-day fundraising activity in the world.
Traditionally held in the last weekend of September, the Berlin Marathon had 40,000 runners in 2023 and 54,280 runners the following year. Held annually since 1974, the Berlin Marathon went through the previous Eastern Zone for the first time after Germany unified in 1990 after 45 years of military occupation.
Held in October, the Chicago Marathon had 48,574 runners in 2023 and had 52,150 finishers in 2024 from a total of 120,000 applications. In early November, the biggest marathon in the whole world happens—the New York Marathon. A total of 55,626 runners finished the course, which runs through the five boroughs of the city—Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island.
In New York, the participants cross five bridges: the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the Pulaski Bridge, the Queensboro Bridge, the Willis Avenue Bridge, and the Madison Avenue Bridge.
Styles has six years to complete all six marathons. Runners who finish all six major marathons get the Six-Star Medal. Members of this elite group reached more than 20,000 after this year’s Tokyo Marathon.
This year, 2,300 claimed their Six-Star Medals in Tokyo. In 2023, Tokyo Marathon got a Guinness World Record for getting 3,000 Six-Star finishers. Incidentally, Tim Yap is one of the proud recipients of the Six Star in Tokyo. Celebrity couple Maricel Laxa and Anthony Pangilinan have also completed all six World Marathon Majors.
